Systems and methods for regulating hard disk drive operation in cold temperatures

A method comprising the steps of:

• sensing a drive temperature associated with the hard disk drive;
• and
• operating the hard disk drive in a power consumption reduction mode when the drive temperature is below the threshold temperature to reduce power consumption by the hard disk drive by limiting a minimum delay between seek operations to at least a cold seek delay time;
• and
• operating the hard disk drive in a performance mode when the drive temperature is above the threshold temperature to improve performance of the hard disk drive by not limiting the minimum delay between seek operations to the cold seek delay time.

A hard disk drive, comprising:

• a disk;
• a transducer for writing data to and reading data from the disk;
• a servo system that seeks the transducer between locations on the disk;
• a temperature sensor for sensing a drive temperature associated with the hard disk drive;
• and
• a cold seek governor that regulates the servo system to cause at least a cold seek delay time to occur between completion of one seek operation and start of a subsequent seek operation in response to the drive temperature being below a threshold temperature.

A cold seek governor process for a hard disk drive, comprising the steps of:

• determining a temperature curve;
• sensing a drive temperature associated with the hard disk drive;
• and
• delaying between seek operations when the drive temperature is below the temperature curve.